Muji and The Art of Marketing

Be it toothbrushes or furniture, the Japanese retailer weaves magic with a perfect mix of premium and minimalism. Who needs brands?

-  Pavan Lall

AFTER ALMOST FOUR DECADES and 700 stores across 28 countries, Japan’s ‘no brand’ retailer MUJI opened its first store in India at Mumbai’s Palladium Mall in August. Dubbed Japan’s Ikea, the no-frills, no-label seller rakes in revenues of over $3 billion (Rs 18,951 crore) by selling everything from clothes and home furnishings to stationery. Satoru Matsuzaki, president and representative director of Ryohin Keikaku, the company behind MUJI, talks to Fortune India about his decision to enter India and the challenges of doing business here. Edited excerpts:

Reliance Brands [MUJI’s Indian partner] has been in the premium retail space for a over decade. Indian consumers, too, have been ready for your products for a while now. So why did it take so long to enter the country?

We are present in 28 countries, where the majority of our stores are single brand outlets. It’s only now that regulations in India have been eased to allow such a format. [The Indian government eased sourcing norms for foreign brands in June.] We had started examining India as a potential market much before the reforms.

How did you go about studying the Indian market?